


SDA: Maintenance

by orphan_account



Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: Detective AU, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 03:22:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10935951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The Shining Detective Agency is temporarily turning off their crime-fighting assisting AI Program in preparation for a new member to join them. But what happens when it's off, and they've got a curious case to solve?





	SDA: Maintenance

“Coffee time—Hey!”

The other detective was snoring in their seat, oblivious to the struggled their partner faced; holding their tray of coffees while trying to open the door. Definitely locked. “I was gone for five minutes, Ran!”

The portable terminal between their seats lit up with a soft purple light, dimming and brightening in time with a robotic voice as it spoke.

: Opening door, stand aside. :

As the passenger side door clicked, Reiji stepped to the side to avoid the door as it opened for him, and he entered the car. “Thank you, AI.” Not even a moment after he set down the tray, the coffee marked with a red dot was grabbed by Ranmaru.

“Oh, so you wake up for coffee but not for your partner asking you to open the door. I see how it is!”

“Coffee and power naps are my best friend.” The silver-haired detective started the car. “And, you didn’t ask.”

Reiji opened his mouth, but instead of an argument he instead grabbed his own coffee and took a drink of it. As they drove away, the terminal lit up.

: I recommend you return to the agency quickly, Sergeant Shining has important news regarding my system and your squad. Also, Detective Camus is complaining that his coffee is going to get cold. :

“First off, a latte is not coffee. Second, what’s going on with your system?”

“You didn’t catch a bug, did you?”

: It would be near impossible for my programming to have a bug, so no. You will have a new person joining the team very soon. :

“What?!” Reiji sat up, staring at the light in surprise. “You aren’t being replaced, are you?”

: I wouldn’t say that. Return to the agency, you have approximately four minutes and twenty seven seconds before Camus requests a new latte. :

 

~~

 

“As you all may have noticed, we’ve got a new desk here! You’re all smart, you can guess what that means, but I will tell you anyways.” The sergeant addressed the three detectives at their desks with a wide grin. “We are getting…A new squad member! They will be arriving in the city shortly, and will be taking a few days to settle in before getting to work. You see, the AI program was not meant to be a permanent thing, as effective as it has been. This new person will be just as good, isn’t that right AI?”  
At the new desk, already covered in several monitors and numerous other tech including the portable terminal, the purple light flashed. 

: Yes, their IQ is a match to my own. They have police training, and will be able to physically assist you in investigations. You could call it an upgrade. :

“I’ve got a question, Sergeant. One I’m sure is shared.” Camus stated, gestured to both Ranmaru and Reiji, who nodded. “Who is this new member? Are we to just walk in one day and assume that whoever is sitting at that desk is our guy?”

“Of course not! They asked for it to be a surprise, and so it shall be! Fret not, they intend to arrive later in the day so proper introductions will be made. Now, don’t you all think this is goodbye to our dear AI Program! It’ll be like it was never gone, I guarantee! But for now, it’ll be turned off in preparation for maintenance! So grab files, and get to work!”

A collective sigh went through the bullpen as Shining flicked off the terminal and went into his office. The detectives gathered around Camus’ desk. Reiji clapped his hands together, looking at them both.

“I, for one, am excited to have a new someone join us! Opinions?”

“As long as it’s no rookie, I don’t mind. But if they’re as smart as AI says, I don’t think we have much to worry about.”

“I’m moreso questioning the secrecy more than the actual idea of a new member. Shining wouldn’t bring them in if they weren’t as good as any of us.” 

“I suppose we’ll just have to ask when we meet them, won’t we?”

“Mm. Now get off my desk.”

After being shooed away, the two returned to their desks, left to their own thoughts on the matter until an accident caught their attention.

 

~~

 

“Damn.”

Ranmaru lifted the police tape as he and Camus walked to the scene of the crash. A big grey truck had crashed into a much smaller, black car, and sent it flying across the crossway, upside-down. The passenger’s side had a large dent in it alongside broken windows. The larger car looked practically unscathed save for a dent in the front, and there wasn’t an injured person to be seen. As they approached, a fireman went over to them.

“Tokiya, what is the situation?”

“The person who called it in said they heard the crash from their apartment. Several others said the same, but nobody saw the crash itself.”

“No witnesses, okay. And the drivers? Did your guys take them to the hospital already?”

“There wasn’t anybody to take. When truck got here, there wasn’t anybody in either car. Hospital says they haven’t received any car crash victims, either.”

“We’ll take it from here, then. Carry on with your clean up, and we will see what we can find.”  
The detectives walked away to investigate the crashed cars for themselves, starting with the truck. “I bet Reiji wishes he wasn’t stuck on computer duty.” Ranmaru commented, turning on his light and proceeding to open the driver side door. He whistled. “This baby is spotless. Including fingerprints, no blood either. Suspicious?”

“Quite. Call Kotobuki and see if you can get something from the plate. I’ll go see the other car.”

“On it.”

Camus strode over to the smaller car, around to the driver’s side. The window was shatter, to no surprise, but with the help of his flashlight he spotted the blood both inside, and a trail of it leading out of the car for a short point. It looked like the driver had been able to pull themselves out of the wreckage, even being able to stand up for a short while before…

“The truck’s a rental-- paid in cash from a John Doe. Guy probably ditched after the hit. What’d you find?”

“A blood trail, see…” Camus directed the light to the start of the blood, and the two of them walked as he explained. “The driver crawled out of the car and started walking. That’s when three, more footprints show up after walking through the blood, coming from the direction of…” He points at the truck, before resuming the explanation with the light on a splotchy patch of footprints. 

“Sign of a struggle?”

“Indeed. After a point the driver’s footprints here” He lights up the trail, showing two lines of blood, with footprints on either side. “show that they went unconscious, more than likely knocked out judging from what we already know. The trail ends flat on the other side of the road, meaning another car was waiting to pick them up.” Camus turned the light back to the small car. “This was no simple hit and run. We may be looking at a kidnapping. Three or more culprits, including the van driver.”

“Looks like it.” Ranmaru scratched the back of his head. “Damn, that’s a lot of blood too.” He eyed the trail, and paused. “So two of the perps dragged them to another car, but the third perp?” Turning his light on, and near where the dragging started, the third set of foot prints veered off to the back of the car, and the trunk was open. Walking over, he noted numerous boxes were opened, only having simple household items inside and out. “They were looking for something.”

Moving over to the passenger side, the door was beyond openable. Luckily, the window was shattered. He handed the flashlight to Camus before crawling in carefully, taking the light back to examine the interior of the wrecked vehicle. “Doesn’t look like someone searched inside here. Must’ve left in a hurry.”

“My guess is that they didn’t want to risk injury looking through an upturned car. DNA and such.”

“Not to mention they probably had a minute to look before someone came running over. Something small, maybe.” He shined the light on the glovebox, but after popping it open and looking inside, he found nothing of interest. A folder, full of ‘So you bought a car’ papers and the like. “Car’s new, too. See if we can’t get an ID off the plate.”

“Right. Now get out of there, I’d rather have you walk back rather than letting you get glass all over our car.”

“Don’t get your fancy pants in a bunch, I’ll be right out.”

After a look in the back he was about to leave the car, when something rang above him. He reached up to feel under the seat, careful of the glass as he did. A moment later he felt the smooth surface of a phone, and pulled it out. The sound came from a text from Mom. “We got a phone, thanks to mom. Here.”

The phone was handed off as he climbed out of the car, shaking off loose bits of glass after. Just then, Reiji’s voice came from Camus’ phone.

: “The car is registered to an Ai Mikaze, a freelance tech worker who moved here a week ago. No record, no gang affiliation.” :

“What about an address?”

: “None, but I got footage from the pod camera on the corner. You two will want to see this.” :

“We’ll be right there.”

The call ended, and after a quick word with the first responders they headed back to their own car.

“Let’s go see what happened to Mikaze, then.”

 

~~

 

“All you need to do is turn off the systems, and we’ll let you go.”

“That’s not very specific.”

Ai watched as one of his captors—the leader, most likely—went over to a table, snatching a rolled-up paper from it and walking back over. They opened it up on the desk in front of him, and he leaned forward to see a map of the city. Several buildings, mostly banks, were circled. There wasn’t any indication of where their hideout was, aside from it being a generic old warehouse. “Hm, I see. Can I say something?”

“What?”

“No. I refuse.”

“You--? You don’t have a choice!” The criminal grabbed the back of the chair, spinning it around to have him face them. “My guy is going to be back with your tech, and unless you want a bullet in your brain I suggest you cooperate.”

“You wouldn’t go through so much trouble to get me if I was expendable. So no, I—”

A punch across Ai’s face caused him to quiet his objection, and following that, a hand gripped his hair, forcing him to look up at the criminal.

“I won’t kill you, but we’ve got time until our guy gets here to convince you.”

Despite his calm demeanor, a droplet of sweat rolled down his bruised cheek as he was veered away from the table.

 

~~

 

“What’ve you got for us?” 

They grouped around Reiji’s computer, looking at the picture of their missing person as the detective began to speak.

“So I pulled up the footage from a camera at the scene, take a look at this.” Reiji tapped at the keyboard, and a video feed came up. The angle showed the small car, with Ai at the wheel, approaching the crossway. They looked like they were looking at something ahead and out of view from the camera angle. They were on their way across the road, when they suddenly floored it, or tried to. The truck came flying into view, slamming into the side of the car and sending it rolling a few feet before it came to a halt. 

“Damn. Look, there.” 

A van came into view, backing up to the scene just as it showed Ai crawling out of the car. From what they could see, he was more than a bit injured, leaning against his upturned vehicle as he walked around to the front. A look at the van and the two men getting out of the truck, he started to move away from the scene, as quickly as he could. The truckers caught up to him easily, and a struggle ensued when they tried to lead him toward the van. It was only when Ai clocked one of the kidnappers in the face that another man came out of the van and ran over.

“It appears he knew what was going on.”

The third man caught their arm around Ai’s throat, using their other arm to point at the man clutching his face and then at the upturned car. They went around, through the glass and blood, as the prints at the scene indicated, opening the trunk while the other two dragged the now-unconscious victim to the van. Something out of view seemed to startle the man, and he ran back to the van empty-handed. Soon after, the van sped off away from the scene. The video was paused a moment after.

“All that trouble for one tech guy?”

“Seems excessive, right? But It looks like Ai isn’t just your run of the mill techie. These blips? Those are all the security systems he’s worked on in the city. A lot, right?” On the side of the screen was a map of the city, with at least a fourth of it covered in purple dots. Reiji tapped away, and several of the blips lit up. “These are banks. People looking for an easy payday?”

“Possibly. You have something else?”

“Right. So I looked back on previous footage, Ai moved in a week ago. Not only is this a normal route for him, but look at this.”

Reiji tapped back to a week ago, and Ai’s car is seen going the same way the first three days without anything out of the ordinary. Day four, the van was there. Five, the truck. It was on day six that, from what they could see, Ai had his phone out and looking to be watching, maybe recording as he drove off. Neither of the cars moved.

“But last night? Ai left, and when he came back that’s when the accident happened.”

“So we’ve got the phone. Get the code, get the video and get some ID.” Ranmaru handed the phone over to Reiji, walking over to his own computer. “Something scared off that one guy, which means we might have a witness. I’ll go back to the scene and see if anyone is hanging around. I’ll keep you updated.” With that, he grabbed his jacket and left.

“…We’ve got an address.”

“What?”

Reiji looked up from the phone at Camus, then showed him the screen. It was an apartment address, clear as day, sent with a capitalized ‘SDA’ at the top of the screen. “It’s not far from our scene and...” He set down the phone, typing up the address. “Rented out a week ago anonymously, noted their electricity bill might be high. Sound like our guy?”

“Let’s go find out.”

 

~~

 

The two made their way up to the apartment complex, an old man coming out to open the gate for them. 

“Detectives! How can I help you fellows today?”

“Thank you for meeting with us, we’ve just got a few questions.”

They walked into the building, and Reiji took out a photo of Ai and held it out to the landlord. “Do you recognize this man? Is he one of your tenants here?” They looked at the photo, and then at him, a look of worry now on their face.

“Yes, he just moved here…Did something happen to him?”

“We’re just trying to find him, when was the last time you and him spoke?”

“Just the other night, he told me he was getting the last of his things from his parents’ house.”

“And he didn’t come back last night?”

“Well, I didn’t see him, but his door card was used just a bit ago. I thought it was—”

“Would you be able to show us his apartment?”

The landlord nodded, and Reiji looked back to Camus, who had just got off the phone. “Update?”  
“Ranmaru found a witness that was walking their dog when they saw the scene. The dog was what startled the man. We have a plate for the van.”

“Oh, great! Let’s—” Reiji stopped, then shook his head. “Damn. AI is still down for maintinence. Can you go to the station and speed things up?”

“Are you certain?”

“I’ve got things handled here, don’t you worry.” Both he and the landlord started up the stairs as Camus left. To the third floor, and then a pause with a signal to quiet from the detective. The owner pointed to an open door, and Reiji nodded. “Go back to your office. Stay quiet.” The landlord returned downstairs as he moved forward.

Someone was walking around in there, and he was pretty sure Ai didn’t have a roommate. Gun out, he approached the door slowly. A man was muttering, something about a computer, and their voice faded along with their footsteps. 

A peek through the semi-opened door showed that nobody was in the immediate area of the apartment, and he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped in. Several boxes were upturned and emptied, undoubtedly a mix of both the intruder’s searching, and the process of unpacking. Either way, they hadn’t left yet.

Reiji approached the room where the man’s footsteps could be heard. He raised his gun as the door re-opened, and the man walked out with what looked like a laptop bag slung across their shoulder. Both the intruder and the detective froze. That was, until the latter started talking.

“Put the bag down, and—Hey!”

He blocked an empty moving box that was kicked at him as the man ran back into the room and made for the fire escape out the window. They were quick, but so was Reiji. He caught the man halfway out the window and pulled him back into the apartment. “You should stop while you’re ahead, there’s nowhere for you to run!”

There was a tousle, albeit a short one as the man smacked Reiji in the face with the very same bag that was being stolen. They climbed out the window, with the detective right behind him. Down the fire escape they went. Okay, there was somewhere for them to run. The criminal jumped the last bit and bolted down the alley, and they were out of sight within seconds. Standing on the last flight of the metal stairway, Reiji took out his phone and dialed.

“Yeah, Ran? I’ve got some bad news.”

 

~~

 

Ai’s head lulled to the side, and he closed his eyes for a moment while trying to hold onto consciousness. His captor spoke, and a few slaps across his already-bruised face forced him to open his eyes.

“You ready to cooperate yet?”

Silence was his only answer, lifting his head to stare at the ringleader with a pained scowl. He was prepared to be struck when the door opened and the man who had left to search his apartment walked in. He recognized his computer bag, and the terminal that was taken out of it and put on the desk.

“There was a damn detective at his place, dude. Had to bolt.”

“Oh, well isn’t that just fucking great! You can stay here then, go get the guns.”

Ai watched as they went over to a crate, before the leader pushed the chair he was in back over to the table. A moment later, he had a gun point at him. “Here’s how this is going to work, you stubborn piece of shit. We’re going to go to this bank” He tapped one of the targets on the map with the nozzle. “and if you don’t turn off the alarms, we’ll do things the hard way. No witnesses.” For unneeded emphasis, they cocked their gun. “Got it? No need to answer now, just do your thing when it’s time, and nobody gets hurt.”

He was brought over to the desk, and the restraints on his wrists were removed. The leader and two of the kidnappers, armed, left the warehouse. The last one, the burglar, closed the door behind them and returned to the desk, keeping their gun pointed at Ai.

“Get to it, then! They’ll be at the bank any minute.”

Ai opened his terminal, and a light purple light flashed briefly. With the lock screen gone, he was met with several folders and odd icons on the desktop. A click on one folder, then another two, and then an icon and a loading bar zoomed across the screen. As soon as it loaded it vanished, and then he closed the terminal.

“Done.”

“What?”

“I did ‘my thing’ as told. Is there a bathroom here?”

“A—You aren’t going to the bathroom! You could escape.”

“I’m in no condition to run away, and I refuse to leave without my terminal. Your worries have no ground.” 

The man looked to be thinking it over, before finally lowering their gun. They undid the rest of Ai’s restraints, grabbing the tech expert by the arm to pull him to his feet. He was led to a door, and the kidnapper spoke plainly. 

“Make it quick, and don’t try anything funny.”

“In the bathroom? Not likely.”

Ai glanced back at his terminal briefly, before walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind him. Luckily for him, there was a bolt-lock which he gladly, and quietly, clicked to lock. He turned and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor. It was a slim chance that his plan would work, but at this point it was all he had.

 

~~

 

The detectives got into their respective cars and drove away from the agency. Ranmaru tapped at the computer screen in their car as Reiji drove.

“Our kidnappers were spotted leaving the scene of a bank. The alarm went off as soon as their van came into view on a nearby pod, says the security guard. Drove off like a bat out of hell.” Camus’ added on to the explanation through the speakers.

: “It appears they came from an old storage building and are heading back to it now. That’s where our man will be.” :

“Squad cars are making their way to it, but we’ll be the first on scene. Something tells me being cheated out of a payday won’t go over well with our perps. Reiji?”

“Hm?” The detective didn’t take his eyes off the road as they sped on. “This is all quite coincidental, don’t you think? Our AI being down, Ai Mikaze being kidnapped for being a tech expert. It’s…” He makes a weighing gesture with one hand. “It’s some situation.”

: “Your theory can wait until we get the job done, we’re about to reach the warehouse.” :

 

~~

 

“You’re back early, what happened?”

“What happened?! I’ll tell you what happened! The fucking techie tried to get us caught by the cops, we need to move—Where is he?!”

Ai moved away from the door just as they tried to open it—failing to do so. “You’ve got until the count of three to open this door!” That wasn’t much time at all. But hope came in the form of sunlight shining through a small window above the sink. He forced himself to stand, and gripped the sink tight as he moved to stand atop it. Deeming it safe enough to support his full body weight, he reached for the window, pushing it open. 

As he was pulling himself up to get through the window, the door flung open with a kick. The next thing he knew, a bullet whizzed past his head. The leader of his captors cussed at him, gun aimed, and an indescribable pain his him in both the side of his thigh and arm as he was halfway out the window—causing him to fall right out of the window, onto the gravel outside. Through the pained daze, he heard a crashing noise followed by unintelligible shouting, and then silence. 

It hurt to move, but with his uninjured arm he pushed himself to sit, slumping against the brick wall. He put his hands to the bullet wounds, trying to ebb the flow of blood and doing a pitiful job of it. On top of everything happening, he almost didn’t hear the footsteps running toward him. A shadow covered him briefly, before they crouched down in front of him. He recognized them as Detective Kurosaki, and with a glance back he saw Detective Kotobuki.

“Is it him?”

“Not many kidnapped people with blue-green hair in the area. Yeah, it’s him. GSWs to the bicep and thigh, we need to get him to the hospital.” 

“No ambo?” 

“No time, I got him, you pull the car around and lets go!”

As Reiji ran back, Ranmaru started to pull Ai to his feet. “Don’t pass out on me now, alright?”

“If I do, it’s not my intention.”

It was a short walk/half-hop to the car that pulled up around the corner, but to Ai it felt like a mile. He collapsed in the back seat as soon as they got in, and the car sped off at full speed to the nearest hospital. “You three were…six minutes late.” A short laugh came from Ranmaru, who was keeping pressure on the wounds. 

“Six minutes? I thought it was more like two bullets.”

“And what can we say? Our awesome crime-fighting helper is undergoing some crazy maintenance.”

“It’s taking…longer than expected…”

“Hey, hey! Don’t black out on us now! Stay—” 

Ai didn’t hear the rest of the pleas by the detectives. It was a slow, blurry fade to black, despite his efforts to remain conscious. The only thing he could hear was the sound of the car’s siren, before silence.

 

~~

 

Camus strode into the hospital’s emergency department, reclaimed terminal in hand, as well as a tray of two coffees, as he went to the front desk. “Pardon me. I’m looking for Ai Mikaze, my partners brought him to this hospital.”

“Oh, yes. He’s still in surgery. I told the other cop I’d let them know when he was out.” She pointed to Ranmaru, who was sitting in the waiting room already. Camus bowed his head politely to her, before walking over to him. At the approach, Ranmaru lifted his head to look at him, taking one of the coffees gladly before scooting over to make room for the other detective to sit.

“What’d the nurse say?”

“He’s still getting worked on. What was his status on the way in?”

“Blacked out halfway here, Reiji is upstairs with him. And the guys that did this?”

“Arrested, they won’t be going anywhere but a cell for a long time.”

“Good.”

The two of them sat in silence for longer than either of them liked, and as soon as a doctor approached them, they stood up.

“Gentlemen. Ai Mikaze’s surgery went fine, he’s resting in the ICU now.” The doctor flipped through the papers. “A mild concussion and several lacerations from the car crash. Along with the gunshot wounds, he took quite a beating. A lot of blood loss. He’s lucky, I’ll give you that. Really lucky. A full recovery is expected.”

“Can we see him?”

“Right this way.”

The doctor led them through the ED, to the elevators and up to a floor with many rooms for patients staying from a short to long time. They went down one hall with several closed doors until they reached one that the doctor held open for them. 

There was Ai, lying in the bed with the IV, along with a few other tubes and the like, attached to him. That aside, he looked to be sleeping peacefully—save for fidgeting here and there. Reiji sat at his side, looking over at them and lifting a hand. 

“He woke up just to tell me he was going to sleep. Is that coffee for me?”

Camus handed the coffee off, staying in the doorway to speak with the doctor while Ranmaru walked in, giving the coffee to Reiji before sitting down at the foot of the bed.

“I think we could all use a good nap about now. Especially him. Was scared he wasn’t going to make it.”  
“It was one of our closer calls, I’d say.”

“Agreed.”

The doctor left and Camus walked over to the pair, looking at the monitors briefly.

“I’ll be staying here a while, the both of you get rest. We can’t have you being exhausted during another case.” 

Though hesitant, both Reiji and Ranmaru stood up. Camus took the former’s seat, setting the terminal beside Ai and leaning back as the two started to walk out.

“We’ll see you back at the station later, yeah? Let us know how he’s doing?”

“Of course.”

They closed the door behind them, and only minutes later did Ai turn onto his uninjured side. He put a hand over the terminal, and opened his eyes slowly before picking it up and examining it carefully.

“No bullet holes?”

“None, I’d say it was luckier than you, on that note.”

“Mh.” Ai opened his computer, tapping through everything. “The criminals?”

“Arrested, they won’t be a bother to you anymore.”

“I see. I’m sure the doctor, as well as you and the others are concerned for my mental health. I’m sure there will be some lasting trauma despite how I feel now, but I’ll do what is necessary to prevent permanence.” He closed the terminal, setting it back down next to him before looking to Camus. “You don’t need to stay; this hospital is secure and I’ll be resting most of the time while I’m here.”

“I see.” Camus stood up. “Very well. I’m certain you know how to contact us if you have need of it.”

Ai only nodded, laying back as Camus left. After the door closed he exhaled, lifting a hand to his forehead and looking out the window. Moments passed before he smiled and closed his eyes, hoping for simple, dreamless sleep as he did. 

 

~~

 

Weeks passed slowly for the detectives, solving cases here and there with plenty of paperwork in between. Their AI program could only offer limited assistance, due to a ‘maintenance failure’, which by now they all knew what it was. So when it was turned off again during their shift, all they could do was wait.

Not that it was a long wait, as they were working in the early morning the sound of someone coming up the stairs caught their attention. A big box came into view, followed by the person carrying it—or, their legs. They set it down on the computer-covered desk closest to the stairs, and turned to look at the three detectives.

“Once I’ve got those last few things set up, I should be back to assisting the three of you in cases just as before.”

Ai started taking numerous tech bits and such out of the box, only pausing to speak once more. “I’m glad nobody is throwing a welcome party, it would be very redundant.” 

“Well yeah, you’ve been here the whole time.” Ranmaru waved a pencil. “Just not in person. Though we are going out later to celebrate, no arguments.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice.”

“None. Speaking of, before you sit down. Not it.”

“Not it!”

“…’Not it?’ This is what you two do when it’s time to get coffee, isn’t it? Then it would be—”

“Nu uh, now that you’re here you get to take part. It’s only fair!” Reiji stood up, beaming as he grabbed his car keys. “Let’s go, Ai! Think of it like initiation.” He started walking out, and Ai looked back to the others to see if they’d say anything to stop it. Blatantly, they waved to them before turning their attention back to files. He sighed, turning around and following Reiji.

 

~~

 

“Can I get one medium French vanilla latte, extra cream and froth. One large coffee, half dark roast with three sugars. A medium coffee with two Splenda, a bit of hazelnut and nutmeg with almond milk.” Reiji paused, looking behind him at Ai briefly before looking back to the barista. “And one extra-large dark roast, with…two creams, one sugar, and…three shots of espresso? No, four.” Another look to Ai, who held up four fingers.

“Four. And whipped cream on top.”

“Right, and whipped topping! That’ll be our new regular order.” Reiji stated, turning back to the employee. They nodded, ringing it up before going to make the drinks. The pair stepped to the side to wait, and Ai crossed his arms while giving the other detective a puzzled look.

“I don’t recall mentioning my coffee preference on the drive here.”

“Funnily enough, I saw you here a few times the week before…” He waved his hand in a rolling motion. “You had your badge, figured your coffee order might be worth remembering for the future. Turns out it was!”

“Hm, well it saves time.” The barista returned with their coffees in a tray, and picked out three colors, dotting all but Ai’s with blue, red, and green respectively. “Purple.” He stated after being given a look. He and Reiji thanked them as they handed the tray over to the detectives, and they wished them a good day as they left. “Though I’m not surprised. You are a detective after all, it’s your job to be observant.”

“You’re a detective too now.” Reiji started the car once the two of them got in, glancing behind them as he backed up. “It’s a lot different from helping behind a computer. Excited?”

“I wouldn’t say excited, but I am looking forward to working in person with the three of you.”

“That’s good! And recovery?”

“I’ve been doing fine, although I am having trouble finding a new apartment. The one I chose to stay in is not as secure as I thought, all things considered. Thankfully, I haven’t unpacked most of my things.”

“Well if you’re looking for a place to stay, you’re welcome to live with us.” The car stopped in front of the agency. “Cheaper rent all around, and I don’t think there’s any safer apartment than one with four cops living in it. Just saying.” The pair exited the car, walking up to the building. Ai shifted the tray of coffees to open the door, giving Reiji a shrug.

“You make a valid point, though I would like to inspect the building beforehand just to be certain, and I’ll need time to consider it.”

“Fair enough! Come on, let’s go deliver the coffees and good news.”

“The—Hey, Reiji! I didn’t say—”

Reiji had already gone up the stairs to the bullpen, and Ai shook his head and went up after him. As soon as he reached the floor, the detective lifted his hands up to cup them around his mouth.

“Gentlemen, our new partner, and new roommate: Ai Mikaze!”

Ranmaru and Camus stared them both down for at least a minute, before the latter sighed and took out his wallet and tossed a twenty at the man sitting at the desk across from him, getting a smug grin in return. 

“That’s why I refuse to bet against you.”

“But you did anyway.”

Reiji laughed, and Ai took his own coffee out of the tray, handing the holder to Reiji to distribute, before going around to his desk and resuming his setting up while the others officially started their work. He smiled very, very slightly, thinking that maybe this job wouldn’t be as bad as he originally thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Do enjoy, and let me know what you think of it in the comments! This was stuck in my head for quite some time, and I hope I did my imagination justice.


End file.
